Before and Now pictures

Here are the referral pictures that I receieved of "Katia and Pasha" and some recent pictures of "Caroline and Chase". It amazes me the diffence a year can make:

Referral picture August 2006


First meeting picture November 2006 (Katia would not smile the entire time we were there!) Now I can't get her to stop!


Second trip picture August 2007


Professional picture October 2007

And here's Chase:

Referral picture received August 2006


First trip picture November 2006


Second trip picture August 2007



Professional pictures October 2007

So much to be thankful for

At this time last year, Gail and I were sightseeing in Moscow and getting ready to leave for Birobidzhan to meet Katya and Pasha. It's hard to believe that a year has passed and my children have been home for over two months now. I have to say that everyone says that you forget all the waiting that you did for your adoption, well not for me. I still vividly remember the agonizing wait for a courtdate, 8 1/2 months to be exact. I also remember what my life was like before kids, at times I really do miss it but I wouldn't trade what I have now for anything.

Caroline and Chase are doing really well and I can't believe how they have changed since we got home. Chase loves the dogs, Caroline still has a little ways to go, but we are all coexisting under one roof. Caroline loves school and is learning English at lightening speed. Academically she is behind the others in her class and I don't know if she will catch up before the end of the school year, I may hold her back and have her repeat Kindergarten next year as I would rather her get up to speed rather than constantly trying to catch up. Time will tell. She is very quiet in school (unlike home where she constantly talking) but the teachers say this is normal for an ESL student. All the children want to be her friend, but she is so quiet and will not interact with them very much, that's a little hard to watch, but hopefully with time it will change. She has grown 3/4 of an inch in the past 2 months. She is a real "girly girl"; her hair always has to be perfect with a bow that matches her outfit, she thinks nothing is better than getting new clothes and shoes, I think Caroline is up to 15 pairs on shoes! She loves her Mama and her brother and has been attaching beautifully. Caroline's favorite thing to do is dance! She loves when I play hip hop music and she'll dance around with her brother. I think I will try and find a dance class for her after the first of the year.

Chase has calmed down considerably since we are home. His evaluation at Baylor Children's House indicated that he is significantly developmentally delayed (at about a 22 month level) and that he has some Sensory Integration issues. He starts twice weekly OT therapy next week to try and get him up to speed. He is no longer a terror to take into a store or restaurant most of the time, the biting, pinching, hitting and kicking have all stopped, although he does still let out an occasional scream! He is still extremely active and it wouldn't surprise me if he is diagnosed with ADHD, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. To let out some of that pent up energy, I enrolled him in gymnastics twice a week, he started about two weeks ago and loves it, he calls it "bouncy school". And the best news is that he has been accepted into preschool at the local Catholic school for two days a week! I am so excited for him, he starts next week. Chase and I spent about two hours with the principal, Sr. Bernarda, a few weeks ago and last week she called and said they would allow him into the preschool. I think I put the fear of God into him before our meeting, he was on his absolute best behaviour! Now my only fear is them kicking him out after he starts for being too disruptive, keep your fingers crossed that doesn't happen! Chase has grown 2 inches in two months! He is almost as tall as his sister. He still loves to eat although he is not hoarding anymore. We are still having issues with potty training, but hopefully that will come to an end soon. He also loves his Mama and his sister and truly has the kindest heart. He loves to help Mama with her chores around the house, loves to dance and listening to music is one of his favorite things to do.

Well that is our update! The kids and I are preparing to host Thanksgiving at our "dom", Caroline is learning all about the holiday at school, the other day, she asked when we were going to the store to "get our monkey"! She meant turkey! Too funny! I am so thankful for the blessings that I have in my life and these children are the best things that could have ever happened to me. What a great Thanksgiving this is going to be (beats eating special k bars like Gail and I did last year!)

Happy Thanksgiving to all

Love, Jane

Today at the Zoo

Caroline had off school today and it was a beautiful day so I took the kids to the Fort Worth Zoo. Here are some of their favorite pics:

Tick or Tweet!

In the essence of absolute truthfulness, I need to confess why I have been such a bad blogger over the past several weeks: I have been sick, sick, sick! And being that I am a self diagnoser and self medicator I thought surely I could cure myself, but that has not worked and I will actually be making a trip to the doctor tomorrow to finally get better, this has been going on over two weeks and I have been a horrible person and mom to be around! Enough is enough!

Yesterday was Caroline and Chase's first Halloween. Caroline had a parade at school in the morning and then when she came home we got back in our Halloween costumes and went trick or treating, or as Caroline calls it "Tick or Tweeting". They had so much fun. Caroline was a Fairy and Chase was a Dinosaur. A little about Chase's dinosaur costume. My sister Gail made this costume for her son Steve almost twenty years ago; after Steve wore it, his brother Chris wore it and after that it was put up in the back of a closet for the past 18 years! Well, when Chris came down for Chase's birthday a few weeks ago, he brought it with him for Chase to wear. I have to say, it is so, so cute and Chase looked adorable in it. I wanted to take credit for making it, but that credit belongs to Gail, and she deserves it. Hopefully Gail will scan and get me the pictures of her kids in it so many years ago and I'll post them to show this now "heirloom" costume! The next generation to wear it will probably be Gail's grandchildren! I'm sure she'll choke when she reads this!!

Here are some of the pictures from the day!

My Family, by: Caroline

Caroline had to do a Kindergarten project this past week that involved doing a construction paper quilt square of her family. This is going to be displayed in the hallway of her school. It is hard to believe that just eight short weeks ago, that page would have been totally empty, not one family member to put on the paper; and today, we ran out of space there were so many pictures. We worked on it this weekend and although she did need some coaching from me, she did a lot of the work on her own. She picked the pictures she wanted in the square, she cut them out, I arranged them and she told me what to label them, she also glued all of them (she loves to use glue!). As a little added touch, I translated all her labels into Russian, I think that makes her very special and unique and I like for her to stand out, surely no other kindergartner will have Russian on theirs!

Here is how it turned out:

Chase's 4th Birthday

BubbleShare: Share photos - halloween photos

Chase turned 4 years old on Friday, October 12th. I don't think he has ever celebrated his birthday before. In the orphanage they would have a cake 1 day a month for all the birthdays that occurred in that particular month, but never has he alone been celebrated. He had a great birthday celebration, his cousin Chris came down from Chicago, they played in the pool, we went out for pizza on his birthday and had a fun party on Saturday

We went to the Texas State Fair on Sunday and the kids had a blast! I got pictures of them eating "sausage on a stick", but I forgot to take pictures of them eating funnel cakes, pizza and fudge! What a great mom I am, such nutritious meals!

Jane


.

This Morning

Today, Caroline is going on her field trip to the Dallas Arboretum. I don't know if she even knows what an "Arboretum" is, but she was so excited to wear her new Halloween outfit and also to ride the "auto-bus". She is usually sooo slow in the morning to get dressed, but this morning, she jumped out of bed and had her clothes on in about 2 minutes flat! Here she is in her new outfit:

Just Hanging Out

Not too much is new in our "dom". Caroline and Chase both had dental appts. this morning and both did so well. No tantrums, meltdowns, fright or anything! Neither has any cavities, which I find unbelievable since they were eating candy like crazy when we were at the orphanage. Both kids were brushing their teeth when I got them, so that actually was a surprise as I really didn't think that Russia was that into oral hygiene! Although we did see lots of people who were really proud to show off their gold teeth!

Caroline is still loving school, her teacher says she is participating more and speaking English more as well. Caroline has her first field trip this Friday to the Dallas Arboretum, she will get to ride a school bus for the first time, she is so excited, I can't wait to hear how she did. Chase is picking up so much from what his sister does and says. Chase is going to be starting therapy for sensory integration disorder in a few weeks. What we finally figured out was that his bad behavior when we are out stems from sensory overload. Sights, sounds, smells that he has never experienced before just drive his little brain into overload and he reacts by pinching, biting and screaming. Needless to say it is not a real treat to take him anywhere so we are really counting on therapy helping so we are not prisoners in our own home. From what I have read, it seems that this therapy for SID is highly effective if begun early and is intensive.

Chase's 4th birthday is next week Friday, my nephew Chris is coming down and we will have a small party on Saturday with family and friends. This will be the first time Chase has ever celebrated his birthday, so we hope to make it special.

This weekend we took care of our neighbor's cats, Caroline loved the cats and is now begging for a "koska", not gonna happen! Here's a few pictures.

Silly Pasha Pictures

We still call Pasha, "Pasha" as that is what he responds best to. We do add "Pasha-Chase" when we remember, but he still looks like a Pasha to me. Today he was very silly, he got under my desk in the kitchen with Rosie the dog and was pretending to be driving a car with Rosie as his passenger.


This afternoon, he absolutely would not take a nap, so I just let him have the run of both of their bedrooms and closed the door. This is what I walked in on when it was time to go pick Caroline up from school, he dressed himself in Caroline's halloween leggings, her pajama top and put his shoes on the wrong feet. Oh, and when he undressed to put on his clothes, he also had a pair of her underwear on. Old orphanage fashion habits die hard:

"Stop eating the dog food"

That's what I say about 10 times a day to Chase! What would possess a kid to eat dog food vs. very good table food for people? Does he have some vitamin deficiency? At least now the dog food is in the kitchen instead of being in my bedroom where the dogs were locked up for the past two weeks. That's right, all six of us (three people, three dogs) are living in one house with no locked doors, no separating the dogs and the kids, it's "peace in the valley" for the most part. Chase is getting along great with all of three of them, of course that's because he is constantly dropping food for them. Caroline has a little way to go as far as the dogs are concerned, she still is weary of them, but basically tolerates them. On a scale of 1-10, I would say we are at about a 6.5 which is way better than the 1 we were at when we first came home.

Caroline loves school! She comes running to me when I go to pick her up, babbling away in Russian and laughing, so I am assuming it's all good. She loves her teacher, Miss Rodriguez, and has made some little friends named Natalie and Sarah. She came home with a fruit loop necklace yesterday and you would think it was made of gold, she was so protective of it. Of course Chase tried to eat it. She is picking up English like you would not believe, mostly just single words, not really sentences, but it is amazing. I really need to watch what I say around her!

Chase is bonding with Mama. We had a good day today, only a few time outs. He is still a terror when I take him out, but it seems he is listening to me more and knows that he should not behave with biting, hitting, screaming, pinching or using foul language (in Russian). He knows it will mean an immediate time out. He is going to be evaluated by the school district for early childhood intervention, but the first appt. is not until November 29th! I nearly cried when they told me that and she did push us to the top of the waiting list for a cancellation. If he qualifies, he will be able to attend a preschool 5 days a week in the morning. Right now, no preschool or daycare will take him until his behavior is under control. We are looking for a private home daycare that may suit him better with a smaller group setting and more individualized attention. One of the preschools that we looked at is determined to find us something that will work for him.

Bedtime is going pretty well, they both love the bath. When we first got home they would barely stay in it 10 minutes, now I have to drag them out after 30 minutes. Chase refuses to sleep in his own bed, he sleeps with Caroline every night. I think he is so used to sleeping with 12 other children, he is scared to be alone. This is one battle I am not going to fight, I have bigger things to worry about right now. There will come a day when Caroline kicks him out and he will have no choice but to go to his own bed. He misses Caroline during the day while she is in school and needless to say, naptime is difficult since he has to sleep by himself.

I'm doing fine, although a little tired. Chasing after two kids is hard work! I have amazing friends who have offered to sit with Chase for a few hours during the day so I can get out and get some "Jane" time. I am planning a mani and a pedi for Monday when my friend Jan will stay with him. Definitely long overdue! My nephew Chris is coming down in October for Chase's 4th birthday, I am looking forward to that. He also says he's gonna "whip that kid into shape" - Ha, we'll see what he can do in 4 days!

Thanks for reading. This blog is kind of cathartic for me. I appreciate everyone's well wishes and support.

Jane

Thank you Becky (SBP)

Thanks Becky, they absolutely love the shoes! They are a little too big, but with the way they are growing, they will fit into them in no time. Caroline especially likes hers - typical girl! Thanks again for all the surprises!
Jane

Caroline's first day of school

Well, it's 9:00 am and the school has not called yet with a "Caroline Meltdown"! So I am thinking it will hopefully be a good day for her. She has been so excited about school, that is all she talks about: "mama, skoll, mama, skoll"??? (that's how she pronounces it). Caroline was a little nervous this morning though, she hardly ate any breakfast, hopefully that will change tomorrow. Here are some pictures from this morning:

Doctor Day

Caroline and Chase had their first visit to the pediatrician today and it went pretty well with the exception of Chase being an absolute terror. It is clear that this kid cannot stand any excessive stimulation whatsoever. The doctor is married to a Russian woman and he speaks some Russian, and also his wife will translate the medicals, so it works out well for us. Both kids checked out pretty well, Caroline has a referral to Scottish Rite hospital for Children to have her left leg/foot looked at, as it turns outward. Chase has been referred to a pedi opthamologist to look at his slightly lazy right eye. The doctor could not detect any heart murmur on Caroline which was made to be a huge issue on her Russian medicals. The doctor also laughed when I told him about the Russian doctor's recommendation that Caroline have umbilical hernia repair surgery asap to prevent any pregnancy complications. Both children have to go to Children's hospital of Dallas for an extensive blood draw which we will do on Friday. The doctor recommended re-immunizing them to get them on schedule rather than doing titers, so each of them got 5 shots in the legs today, poor babies, but they love to show off their cool band-aids as their battle scars. Mama has bite marks and bruises to show off for hers; I won't even tell you where.

I had the translator over yesterday to work with the kids and the dogs. It went much better than I expected, the translator has dogs so she had no problem working with them. She had me bring each dog out one by one and gradually allowed the children to pet and feed the dogs, it went beautifully while she was here; as soon as she left and probably was not even out of the cul-du-sac, the kids were screaming and scared again. She is coming back tomorrow to work with them again. Hopefully this time it will stick.

I turned in all of the paperwork for Caroline to register for kindergarten, she will first be tested at an intake center for language development and then actually start school. We are hoping to be able to be tested tomorrow morning and she will then start on Monday of next week. The translator also talked with her about school and she is really excited.

Here are some pictures from this morning before we left for the doctor's office.

Home one week

Mama is sooooo tired! Sorry for no update sooner, but dear Lord this is hard! Gail left on Wednesday, so I have been on my own for a few days now. Caroline and Chase are starting to settle in better and better each day. They are now sleeping in their own beds, at first they slept together in Caroline's and screamed for about an hour or so; then last night Caroline slept in Chase's and Chase slept in Caroline's and screamed for about 30 minutes. I don't really care if they sleep in the bathtub, as long as they sleep. Tonight, they are finally sleeping in their own beds alone! Yeah! And not one scream! Small milestones, but I'll take what I can get. We've mostly been hanging out at home with some small excursions to the store and also a haircut for Chase, I swear, he looked like some rock star with his hair, it was so long; I like little boys to look like little boys. Caroline's hair is such a curly mop, but I love it and couldn't stand to cut it, so we will wait a while longer to see what might suit her best.

We've had some moments though. We had some time to kill before Chase's hair appointment on Thursday, so we stopped at TJ Maxx to see if they had anything that I needed; well, Chase was an absolute terror. I had him in the cart and was holding Caroline's hand and her head is on a swivel: "Mama, look, look, look", "Mama, look, look, look", "Mama, look, look, look" and Chase was screaming peesit and cacit at the top on his lungs and calling anyone who came within 20 feet of us the "B*^tch" word in Russian. Hopefully no one at TJ Maxx in North Dallas spoke Russian and understood what he was saying. He was hitting and pinching me and pulling his sister's hair, it was an absolute disaster and we could not get out of there quick enough. What was I smoking when I decided that going there would be a good idea? Chase was great though at the hair salon, it's one that caters to children, so he sat in his "marchina" and watched Cars on the video and was a very good boy.

The kids are also loving the pool! They are little water babies. It's amazing, I'm not sure if they have ever been in a pool, but they took to it right away.

The Dogs. Well, that's another story. They are slowly getting used to them. Today, my neighbor came over and since the kids love the pool, her and I got in the pool with them and played for a while and then she went and got the dogs and put them on leashes and brought them out. No blood curdling screams, but still weary of them. We did manage to get them out of the pool with the dogs loose and sit at the table outside and feed the dogs snacks. This was major progress. They still freaked a little when all of us, dogs included, went inside, so I ended up locking the dogs up again for most of the rest of the day. I think if we do this everyday, we will get to a point where we can all live in the same house together without closed doors! That would be awesome in my book!

I've decided to go ahead and try Caroline in Kindergarten, she will hopefully start a week from Monday. I really think that by doing this will acclimate her to our lifestyle better and she seems a little bored. She seems to understand she will be going to school and making new friends and meeting her teacher. She about flipped when she saw the playground, lots of slides and monkey bars and swings, it probably looked like Disney world compared to what they had in the orphanage.

Chase will stay home with me for some "Mama boot camp". They would kick him out of preschool in a New York minute with his current behavior. He kicks, hits, bites, screams, pinches, pulls hair and has a horrible "potty mouth"; all this at three, almost four years old! Unbelievable! It has gotten better since we've been home and he's away from that orphanage, but when he gets angry, a lot of it starts to come out again. I look like I've been to war with all the bruises and bite marks!

Earlier in the week, they got to meet their other Aunt and Uncle, we met for dinner at a restaurant, (they are very good when they are around food) and we had so much fun. They all got along great, and they were so funny. At one point, Aunt Mary asked how to say something in Russian and Caroline hands her Gail's little Russian translation book! Chase and his Uncle got along so well, they were doing "boy stuff" like making sand castles by spilling the entire salt jar into a glass of water, thank goodness Chase didn't try and drink it!

They are starting to pick up English more and more each day. Here's a list of some of their favorite words, many learned from "Troyta" Gail:

Kissy, Kissy, Smoochie, Smoochie
Yummy in the Tummy
Mmmmm, mmmmm, mm, mmmm, mmmm, m, m, m
Mama Mia!!
Baby
Stop it!!!
Dog

Here are some pictures from this past week:





I'll try and be a better blogger now that things may be settling down a little. I really need to put a post together of Gail and my experiences in Russia; there were so many funny moments I don't want to forget any. I will try that one tomorrow.

Love to all,
Jane

It's so good to be home!

We made it home Saturday night after a very long journey. We left Moscow early Saturday morning as I needed to go to the Delta ticket office and pay the difference in my fares for coming back early. Well, I was absolutely insistent that we get bulkhead seating because I did not want a repeat of the nightmare flight we had taken 3 days earlier and this flight would be even longer. My translator told me to go ahead and ask the cashier at the Delta office to secure our seats in bulkhead as she felt we had a better chance with him rather than at the ticket counter. Well his first response was absolutely not, they were all taken and and none were available. I was nearly in tears, I had two very rambunctious kids so I showed him a $100.00 bill and asked again, he shoved it away and again told me no all the while typing into his computer. A few minutes later, lo and behold, suddenly 4 seats became available in bulkhead! and my "gratuity would be greatly appreciated" he told me! Gotta love Russia!

The flight home was much better than the first one, although Gail was not seated in the same row as us and no one would switch places with her. Caroline fell asleep and slept for about 8 of the 12 hour flight and Chase, well he finally fell asleep for about 4 hours of the flight on the floor in front of me. I did dose him with some benadryl which helped a little, but Lord this kid is tough. It took a long time to go thru customs in Atlanta and then immigration, we had about 25 minutes to spare to make our flight to Dallas, but we made it hauling all of our carry on and two kids who's heads are on swivels. I did use these stuffed animal backpack/harnesses most of the trip with the kids especially for Chase as he just will not listen either in Russian or English and I was so afraid of losing him in airports and such; his name Chase, suites him to a "T"! The flight to DFW was pretty uneventful as we all were so tired. I had called the limo service from Atlanta to change our arrival date and time and after calling around, they found a driver with a large SUV to pick us up, not the stretch I had wanted, but at this point I didn't care if we had to pile into a VW bug to get us home. Our luggage didn't make it with us on the flight to DFW but Delta said they would deliver it to my home when it made it on the next flight.

I had had the dog sitter lock the dogs up in my bedroom so they wouldn't scare the children when we arrived home, but the kids heard them barking and started to panic. They did settle down a little when they saw their rooms which they loved and after playing with some of the toys, they had their baths and off to bed and fell asleep; so I thought. I climbed into bed at about 11:00 pm and fell sound asleep only to be woken up at about 3:00 am with blood curdling screams coming from Caroline's room and then Chase's room. I ran in there and they we're both screaming and sobbing terrified of the dogs that they had yet to even meet, at the same time the phone is ringing with the courier to deliver the luggage (3:00 am!!) I'm thinking this is ridiculous and finally picked them up and put them in my bed and moved the dogs to the living room and closed the door. They finally fell back asleep and slept almost the entire day and didn't get up until about 3:00 pm. Gail and I did no less than 14 loads of laundry, we decided if it even touched Russian air, it was going in the wash.

When the kids woke up we talked with them about the dogs and assured them in both Russian and English that the dogs were friendly, would not bite and liked to kiss and lick their fingers and toes. I picked them up one by one and carried them into the kitchen and again the loudest blood curdling screams you have ever heard! They would barely even look at the dogs. Now my dogs are two small terriers and one medium size golden retriever/Shepard mix with very sweet dispositions and have been around children and basically ignore them and sleep on the couches all day. They did calm down some when I sat them on the counter in the kitchen where the dogs could not possibly get to them, but still incredibly scared. Over and over we told them the dogs would not hurt them, they are friendly but not much was working. I put the dogs outside and went out and played and petted them so they could watch thru the window and they seemed somewhat okay with that, but still had no comfort in meeting even the littlest one. We went ahead and left the dogs out and cooked dinner, steak, baked potato and salad which Caroline loved, but unbelievably Chase didn't seem to like the steak. They did love the "drumstick" ice cream cones for dessert though!.

Bedtime last night was another nightmare even with them in my bed and the dogs locked up and nowhere in sight. Caroline finally fell asleep after about 4-5 hours and Chase was up most of the night crying every 30 minutes. I don't know what to do about this situation. There has got to be one. If anyone has any ideas on how to make them more comfortable or even tolerate the dogs I would welcome any and all suggestions.

Thanks, even though this is hard, it's sooooo good to be home!
Love,
Jane

Fun in Moscow Today

Hi Everyone,
We had a great day in Moscow today. We love the President Hotel, lots of great amenities and the room is good for kids. We have a suite, so there is lots of room. The breakfast buffet is wonderful and with the way these kids eat, it is perfect for them. Caroline is all about the fruit and pancakes and Chase, well Chase is just about anything that he can get in his mouth and eat! The kids are doing great and having so much fun, they are soooo much fun to watch, it is unbelievable that they didn't even know each other a week ago; they are pretty much inseparable now! After breakfast, we we're picked up by our coordinator and driver and driven to the clinic for their physical, Caroline didn't throw up in the car, yeah!! I met the famous Dr. Boris and he was great with the kids, both have gained weight and height and got a clean bill of health. He has some strange opinions on things though, he thinks Caroline needs hernia surgery for her "outie" belly button because it could interfere with her ability to have a normal pregnancy later on in life! Not something I have ever heard of, but whatever, they both passed, have all their parts and we can now move on to the final stage of this trip and get to go to the US embassy tomorrow and get their tickets "outta here"!

After the medical appointment, we went to Red Square for the traditional photos of the kids in front of St. Basil's. They were so good and looked so cute in their jeans and jean jackets, we got ton's of compliments on how adorable they are and it seemed like we attracted just about the entire United Nations to us with these kids. We had people from Tel Aviv who spoke Spanish (very strange) want to know all about them, Americans who thought they were twins (huh???) but the best was when this group of Chinese people asked to take pictures of themselves with the children and then demanded that Gail and I be in this picture as well! They loved the family concept, we're still cracking up at that one. Another adoptive family was with us when this happened and they took pictures of the Chinese guy taking pictures of us, can't wait to get them from him and share them with you all as this was toooo funny. After all the picture taking, we went to GUM department store and wandered around and window shopping stopping for some cokes. Caroline is such a little diva, she couldn't stop looking at all the platform and red glittery shoes, her head looked like it was on a swivel. Chase on the other hand is all about the food. He nearly steals other peoples food off their tables as we walk by! They had their first ice cream cones and all they could say was "mmmm, mmmm, mm, mm, mmmmmm" We had to teach Chase how to eat his as he just went for the cone and took a big bite out of the cone and needless to say, all the ice cream came out thru the bottom. We finally headed back to the hotel for naps as the kids we're really tired with the eight hour time change and I have learned that naps are the best thing that anyone ever invented for new moms! After the naps, we went and got carry out pizza for dinner and came back to the room to eat it. Another teaching lesson for these kiddo's on how to eat pizza - amazing that this is all so new for them; they even had to be taught how to ride an escalator as they have never seen one!

Tomorrow we are planning on hitting Arbat street for some shopping in the morning and then we are to be at the embassy at 2 in the afternoon and after that we are done!! All that is left is to pack and come home! Cannot wait! Gail and I are so sick of wearing the same outfits over and over again, we were thinking of switching clothes just to feel like we are wearing something new! Can't wait to see my washing machine again.

We are off to bed right now, will write more tomorrow with some more pictures.

Miss and love you all,
Jane

Mind is too mushy for a post, but here's some pictures

We Made it to Moscow!

Well, we made it to Moscow barely! It was just about the worst flight you could have imagined. A nine hour flight, a five year old having meltdowns about every 30 minutes, a three year old who is a wild child, lots of pee, poop and puke, but we made it. Dalavia airlines is pitiful! Very unhelpful with children and seem totally put out by even having to serve them, it was just an absolute disaster, but we certainly left them with the memory of us with all the mess we left behind. It just cracks me up when they ask you if you want chicken, fish or meat? Then when you tell them you want the chicken, they are out of it and then when you ask what kind of meat, the answer you get is "meat", whatever that is supposed to mean, my guess is mystery meat, so I passed on dinner, but of course my kids ate it like it was no tomorrow. Gail is having her own meltdown tonight, so I am enjoying a bit of quite with her napping on the couch and the kids asleep to world in the next room after getting them both baths and washing the filth off of them and showering all the kids pee, puke and poop off of me! Yuck!

My agency finally called at 2 in the morning on Monday and they tried to tell me that they had not received any of my messages and blah, blah, blah. Well I was not in the mood to argue at 2 in the morning, I just told them to get us out of here asap. We are leaving for home on Saturday! Yeah!

Well you asked for it, so here are pictures of the children:

Caroline:


Her Hollywood shot:



Chase:


Chase's favorite activity: Eating!

Here's Gail's Version:

Hello Again To Everyone:

Still here in Biro. Going on 14 days and it is not a resort community.

This is hard!!! but we will endure. Leaving here Wed. Morning and not
soon
enough. The only good thing about this are two little kids, Caroline
and
Chase. So far, they seem to be adjusting as well as expected. Last
nite
was the first time for both of them to be with us overnite in a 150 sq.
ft.
hotel room. Do any of you remember what it's like to have a 3 and 5
year
old around. All I can say is that it's better to be the Aunt now.
Here's a
Russian factoid: pickle juice is good for the brain. After drinking
vodka
with Lula and Nina, they wanted us to drink pickle juice-we obliged.
Some
things that I will never want to see or hear again: cutlets,hand
washing 13
days of laundry, a country that continually smells of BO, hotpots in
hotel
rooms, dirty kids that I want to hose down, towels that are thin as
silk,
borscht and continuous Russian TV. Give me a Chicago pizza and a
bottle of
Michelob and I will be a very happy camper.

Well enough for now. Again thank you for all the responses. All of
you are
my link to civility. Jayne and I are getting by on our sense of humor.

Love,

Gail

I want to come home!!

Okay, we are still here in Biro and I am sick of it!!!! I want my house, my pool, my dogs, my own food, my bed, my bathroom, my space!!!!!!! Everything!!! We now have Chase and Caroline with us which is great, although Chase is a handful! He and his sister are getting along fabulously, which makes me so happy. Caroline is a dream to take care of and Chase is having lots of typical orphange behaviour: hitting, pinching, hording food, very, very short attention span. We have our work cut out for us when we get home, ahhhhh home! We are due to leave Biro in two days! we are counting the hours! We get to Moscow on the 29th. I am having great difficulty getting my agency to call me and get us out of Moscow on the 1st instead of the 4th, so needless to say, I am extremely angry at my agency. All other families here on the same schedule are leaving on the 1st and we should as well.

I am so sorry for the delay in pictures! my camera disk or the cd I downloaded them to will not work on this public computer. As soon as I get to Moscow I will load you all down with so many pictures you will be sick of them!!! I think I have taken about 400!! Right now you have to trust me they are about the cutest and sweetest kids in the world in my eyes!!!

Please pray that my agency calls me soon as Gail and I want out!!! If anyone can please call Adoption Source in Boca Raton for us and light a fire under them to contact me I would be forever grateful!!

We got to go and feed these kids lunch ( I have never seen any child eat as much as these do!!!!) Dasyadanya!!

Love to all,

Jane

We are still here!

Hi Everyone,

Just a short note to let you all know we are doing great. Caroline is staying in the hotel with us and having a ball. She is really starting to open up and trust us, it is truely amazing the transformation from this incredibly shy little girl to one that is laughing, joking and playing. Chase is still at the orphanage and we are visiting daily and taking him out for short trips to get him used to the car and the outside world, he's a bit of a handful. Can't get the picture CD to work quite yet, so sorry for the delay in pictures. We're off to see Chase and pick him up and take him and Caroline for lunch and then naps and then who knows what else. Well I have a little 5 year old on my lap right now and she wants to say hi: jhrtfcktfclthjujh5rkmrh4rhhjrjr (that's Caroline saying hi!!)

Love to all,

Jane

I'm a Mama!!!

Today, August 21,2007 the honorable judge in Birobidzhan, Russia told me I am the official Mama to, drum roll please:

Caroline Ruth and Chase William!!!

Court went just fine with only one little hitch, when I petitioned to waive the 10 days, one of the reasons was that there was a respitory virus going around the orphanages and I did not want the children to catch it, well the prosecutor insisted that he see a log of the recent viruses and after much debate with the judge, he agreed and the logs had to be found and brought to court and reviewed and then it was decided the decision would be made the next day! Ugh! So I had to show up at 9:00 am this morning and that is when he rendered his wonderfully positive decision and waived the 10 days! Gail and I will still be here in Birobidzhan until the 29th when we fly to Moscow as it takes some time for the regional paperwork, but we will pick up the children everyday and have them with us for the daytime and then drop them back at the orphanage in the evening. Our hotel room is just not accomidating for two small children.

The kids are fabulous, they have grown so much since we saw them in November and they both remembered me! Caroline (Katia) has really opened up and is smiling and laughing and is just a joy to be around. Pasha (Chase) is so much fun, bright, smart and full of energy. They are perfect kids in my eyes! I will try and post photos tomorrow as we are at the post office in Biro and cannot use my photo card here. There is no access at the hotel, so we are at the mercy of when the post office is open.

The Hotel Vostok has been renovated!! You have no idea how wonderful this is!!! The bathroom is brand new, clean and the beds are new. It has been painted and is actually pleasant to stay here! We were really happy to find this. There are several families here with us who also are here for court so we have all been entertaining ourselves quite well. We've found some new restaurants and some of the food is surprisingly good! Although we are still grateful for the provisions we have brought.

I will try and update our days and post pictures as much as we can, but our time is relegated by the translators, drivers and coordinators and of course the children's schedules.

There have been numerous funny incidents along they way and we'll update everyone on those as we get more time. But for now I wanted the world to know that after 6 plus years of trying to bring children into my home, I am finally the mom I have always dreamed of.

Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts.

Love to you all,
Jane

Hello from Moscow!

Gail and I made it to Moscow in one piece barely! On our trip from DFW to Atlanta, we were about to land and all of the sudden we are headed up again. Apparently, there was a plane that had crossed the runway we were to land on and was not moving, so the pilot had to abort the landing and take off again! A little scary, but it's what I would call a "do over". We ended up landing without incident and were soon on our way to our flight to Moscow. Our flight leaving Atlanta for Moscow ended up being two hours delayed and then when we finally took off, several hours into the flight, they asked if there was any medical personel on board. Well I didn't jump right up but waited until a flight attendent walked past and asked if they needed a nurse, he indicated they had found a doctor and my services were not needed, yeah for me! Well we came to find out that a passenger on board was very ill with end stage cancer and was coming home to Russia to die and it appeared that she might not make it to Russia to complete that stage; they moved her to the back of the plane and I have no idea what happened to her after we finally arrived. Another incident on board the plane was when another passenger apparently just could not get comfortable in her seat and decided she was going to take a nap on the floor in the aisle of the plane right next to my seat! She layed there for a good 10 -15 minutes before a flight attendent finally made her get up and that was only after threatening her with the pilot making an emergency landing if she did not cooperate!

Well so far it's been a pretty eventful 24 hours, I can only imagine what the next few weeks have in store.

Gail and I are off to window shop and try and stay awake for a few more hours. We are off to Birobidzhan tomorrow, will post from there when we get a moment.

Love to all,
Jane

One more Day!

Well, I can't believe the time is finally here to leave for Russia to pick up my children! It has been a whirlwind week with all the last minute things to do and packing, but I am ready!! Of course it wouldn't be Russia without some last minute hitches. The coordinator in Russia called last week to tell my agency that I needed an updated homestudy! Mine expires on August 23rd, my courtdate is August 20th and apparently they felt that was cutting it too close. So, after frantic calls to my social worker, she said "relax, don't worry, this is soooo Russia". She got it done in 2 days and even sent it to Austin for me to be apostilled! Did I say I have the best social worker in the world??? Love you Tammy!

I am picking my sister Gail up at the airport late this afternoon and we will probably go out for Mexican as I need to get my fix before heading to Russia, after that we need to watch "Big Love" and then one more night in my home without kids! Wow, I can't believe this is finally happening after almost 3 years!

I have two more things to do: Get the car washed so it is nice and clean for when we come home and get a manicure and pedicure. So I am off. My next post will probably be from Moscow.

Thanks to all of you for your sweet comments and private e-mails. I am so feeling the love!!!

Love you all,

Jane

One more week

We will be on a plane to Moscow one week from today. I have been super busy tying up loose ends and will post more tomorrow.

Jane

The ultimate 2 week wait!

Only 14 more days until we leave! Now the time is really starting to drag. I've got just about everything ready to go, all I need to do is pack. I got the car seats, ended up getting the Britax Marathon as those seemed to work the best with the kids sizes and also my car; now I just need to find someone to install them. I've alerted the bank to start gathering the fresh money, they always get a kick when I tell them I need "clean money". Got the dog sitter scheduled to stay at the house. I still need to finish "baby proofing", I did get all the outlet covers done and the door knobs done, but I still have to do the cabinets and drawers. My BIL Larry keeps asking me when am I going to do that, and then he ends the question with how difficult it is, and how he couldn't wait to get those things off when his boys were old enough. So I know the reason I am procrastinating is because of him. Gail is coming down the day before we leave for Moscow so we can both leave out of DFW, she is also going to stay a few days after we return to help us get settled. She has promised to make pies for us when we get home, I will hold her to that, if you have never tasted my sister's pies, they are AWESOME!

I spoke with my agency today and there is a family who is currently in Birobidzhan for their court date. Apparently it went very well, but the judge did not waive the 10 days which is very unusual for Biro; I really hope that is not the trend and we do end up with our 10 days waived; if not, we will survive, but it sure would be nice to get home sooner.

Kate asked for pictures of my shopping spree, it's hard to see them all folded and ready to be packed, but here they are, you'll get a much better idea when the kids can put on a fashion show for the camera!

That's it for now. Hurry up the 14th!!

Love, Jane

Twenty One Days

Three weeks and we will be off to Russia! This weekend I went to Grapevine Mills Mall and found some great children's shops: Gymboree, Tommy Hilfiger, Gap, The Children's Place and bought the stores out! I got so many cute things, I hope I am right on the sizes, I went up by one size since I was in Russia in November. I am pretty well set on all the kids stuff, now I just need to figure out what I need to take for me. Gail and I are really getting excited about the trip, we can't wait to see the children again. I wonder if the orphanage prepares them for adoption? The people we met in Birobidzhan related to the orphanage all seemed to really care for these kids, so I am hoping they put a positive spin on leaving. We brought all our gifts for the people on our first trip, so we don't need to do that again although I will be bringing some special things for some key people that we were close with. Our airline tickets have been purchased (anybody know any tricks to upgrading to Business Class?), we'll be staying at the President Hotel in Moscow and the Hotel Vostok in Birobidzhan, still waiting to receive our visa's back. I did find out from the travel agency that there will be two other families in Biro at the same time we are there, so hopefully we will get together with them. As much as I love my sister, too much togetherness can breed contempt! So having other people to talk to will be a welcome relief for both of us! We're trying to figure out what we can take as far as food, we had a hotpot in our room last time, so we figure oatmeal and soup would probably work, anybody have any other suggestions? We really didn't care for the food in the restaurants last time, so we want to be prepared. I met with a Pediatrician last week and although he was a nice and competent doctor, I didn't feel like he would be the Pedi for us, so I have a few more referrals and will be speaking with them in the next couple of weeks. Still have to buy the car seats, I think I settled on the Britax brand, although I am not certain which model yet. That's all for now.

Love,
Jane

SBP: I received your card and gift!! Thank you so much! I love it and can't wait till I get my first issue! You are very sneaky, still can't figure out who you are!

Four weeks from today

Thank you all for your sweet e-mails and comments. I'm so happy I can't stop smiling, I look like I have a hanger stuck in my mouth!

Four weeks from today we leave for Moscow. It seems like an awfully long time away, but I'm sure it will go by quickly, I have a lot to do. My sister Gail will be coming with me, although it is like leading a lamb to slaughter. She's excited about bringing the kids home, but the travel is what is really hard. Our first trip went well, but our accommodations in Birobidzhan were on the level of a super 8 motel from the 60's (see my earlier posts) and it's the only place to stay. Gail is already searching the Internet to find if there are any spa's in Biro, she thinks she found one, but I think it's probably got some form of Chinese water torture, I'll let her try it first and then we'll see if I go. It was easier before because we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into, but now we know, so it's a little harder knowing what we have to look forward to. Passports have been sent in for our Visa's. Travel arrangements are being made as we speak, talk about sticker shock with airline prices! Ouch! Appointment with the pediatrician to be is on Thursday. I still need to buy car seats, anybody have any recommendations? I think I need the conversion ones that turn into booster seats. The last measurements I got on the kids was one is 40.5 inches and 33.5 lbs., and the other is 39 inches and 40 lbs. I don't know when these measurements were taken, so they may have grown since then. I'll also take any advice anyone has about travelling over 20 hours on a plane with a 3 year old and a 5 year old.


Wow, I just can't believe this is finally happening! It will have been 8 1/2 months since our first trip and 2.7 years since I started this journey, whew, I am glad this part is coming to an end and best is yet to come!

Jane

p.s. SBP, I got your sweet card and note, thank you!

Oh Happy Day!

It finally happened: I got my court date!!!

August 20th, 2007

I will leave for Moscow on August 14th, Birobidzhan on August 16, and my courtdate is scheduled for August 20th.

We then come back to Moscow on August 29th, and leave for the US on September 4th.

I cannot even describe the feeling that came over me when my casemanger called. I am just totally joyous. I am going to officially become a mommy on August 20th!

Jane

Happy 4th of July!

What a great day for Russian Adoption! The Ministy of Education in Moscow held a ceramony this morning and handed out the accreditation certificates to several adoption agencies. It won't be long now.

Katia and Pasha will be coming home!!!

Hold on to your hats!

I've got news!

It looks like I will be getting a courtdate and bringing home my children by the end of this month! I don't have a definitive date yet, but my agency is indicating that it most likely will happen at the end of July. With the agencies receiving their accreditation certificates tomorrow, July 4th and then forwarding them on to the regions they anticipate that the judge will start scheduling courtdates and mine will hopefully be before August. My homestudy and several other important documents are expiring in August, so this is perfect timing. I do not want to go thru the expense yet again of redoing all these documents, I would much rather spend the money on my kids.

So thank you to all who have been praying and keeping the positive thoughts about this ordeal. It's not done yet, so please keep the prayers coming, but it looks promising now!

Love to all,
Jane

The bane of my existence

Toads!

Every spring since I have lived in this house, the toads come out of hiding and congregate in my pond to have an orgy! They are pretty much here from May thru September, sometimes into October. The first year it happened, I was totally grossed out, but now I have just come to accept it; my alternative is to fill in the pond which I don't want to do. These creatures only come out after dark and and most nights there are two or three of them, but some nights there are so many it looks like a science fiction movie! They are ugly and excessively loud. These are not cute little green frogs, these are ugly, gray/brown/black reptilian looking creatures. The noise they make while calling their mates is indescribable! Not a nice little "rrrbbbittt", more like a "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" and this goes on well into the night, until day break. My little Scottie dog Rosie absolutely flips out when she hears them, crawls under chairs, shakes, and just wants to hide. All the neighbors know when the toads are in my pond as they can hear them as well. One night last summer, my neighbor and I had had enough of them and after a little liquid courage stood over the pond and caught at least 10 of them, put them in a bucket and carried them to a creek and set them free. The one thing we forgot to do was mark them with spray paint to see if the same ones made it back to my yard, because they were back in full force a few days later. Well these things being not the smartest of God's creatures, sometimes find their way into the pool instead of the pond and I am forced to fish them out in the morning. I take the long pole with the skimmer net on it and scoop them up and flip them over the fence into the alley. I am just waiting for the day when some unsuspecting driver finds a flung toad land on his windshield and gets an up close and personal view of "Mr Toads Wild Ride"! Well this morning was no different and of course found one in the pool. This time I think he landed in the neighbor across the alley's yard, maybe he'll make that his new home. I have attached a picture below of the one I fished out this morning just so you can understand my absolute disgust at these amphibians. If anyone has any ideas on how to get rid of them, I am welcome to suggestions!



On the adoption front, it appears that several agencies are going to receive their accreditation certificate on July 4th! WHOOOHOOOO. This is what we have been waiting for for the past seven months! It should not be too much longer before I get my courtdate, but I am beyond speculating when that might be. I just hope Katia and Pasha like toads!



Jane

We're lining the animals up two by two!

I am sick of rain! It has been raining here in Dallas nonstop for the month of June, there is flooding all around us, my pool looked like it was about to spill over until I drained several inches of water off of it today. I am sick of fishing toads out of the pool! One went to toad heaven the other day and thank goodness Jose was here to do the yard and he got that one out, I wasn't about to touch it. The pond is spilling over. The dogs hate to go outside in the rain, heaven forbid they get a drop of water on their paws, they might just melt! Daisy I can understand (Hurricane Katrina survivor, had her share of water then) but the other two are just being doggy divas. They look so bored, I wish they could color, that's a great rainy day activity! The air conditioning in my house went out today, I am waiting on the AC people to call me back to let me know when they can get over here and fix it. We may have to go stay at a hotel if the weather gets too hot and they can't get over here until next week. There's not much you can do outside with all this rain, so after looking at Katia's room, I decided I didn't like the quilt I originally got for her and found another one that I like better; look below and I posted some pictures of their completed rooms, her's with the new quilt.

Nothing too new on the adoption front. My agency is not very forthcoming with information so I glean most of the updates on reaccreditation from other's blogs and various chat sites. It does appear that 12 agencies have gotten word that all their paperwork has been approved and are awaiting their accreditation certificates. As soon as the certificates arrive, they will forward them on to the regions and hopefully courtdates will be set. There is some indication that the certificates will start arriving next week, so we all have our fingers crossed that this is the case. Keep those good thoughts and prayers coming.

Love, Jane

Katia's new quilt

Pasha's finished room:

I couldn't resist posting this silly one:

Rosie on Toad Patrol over the pond

Rumors

There is a rumor circulating that a few of the U.S. adoption agencies have received word from Moscow that they will be getting their reaccreditation certificate very soon. If this is true, this is very good news! But the rumor mill is a very scary place. I have been down this road before with promises made and yet they never came to fruition. It does appear that this one has some merit to it as there is more than one agency reporting this; we will see.

I also got a call from my agency saying that the court is wanting some updated documents, is this a sign of good things to come? I hope so!

Do you understand why we call this thing called Russian Adoption a rollercoaster ride? Stayed tuned for any further updates!

Jane

Nothing New

I really wish I had some news to share, especially good news; but I don't have anything. I am still endlessly waiting for this re accreditation of my adoption agency. I have begged to get some updates on the children, measurements, weights and pictures; I am hoping they will at least come thru with that. I am so afraid these kids will not remember me or worse, feel like they have been abandoned yet again. This is so unfair to them. There is also the possibility that a Russian family could come forward and try and adopt them. This is a remote possibility as these kids are older and most Russian families want infants or really young toddlers, but it is something that concerns me. Even though I signed papers indicating my intent to adopt, Russians have precedence and they are not mine until the Judge says they are mine. I really don't think I'll hear anything this week as it is a holiday week in Russia and everything seems to shut down. Please continue to pray and send good thoughts that this will end soon, this really is becoming unbearable.

Jane

Edited to add:

Here are some statistics about orphans in Russia, this is why we need these kids home now!!

The statistics are alarming...

More than 700,000 orphans are living in 2,000 state-run orphanages.

Of those, 95 percent have a living parent unable to or unwilling to care for them.

That doesn't include the estimated 2 million to 4 million homeless orphans living on the streets and in railway stations.

More than 80 percent of Russian orphans in state care fall 2 or more years behind in school by the time they are 12 years old.

Of those who are not adopted and leave the orphanage between the ages of 16 and 18:

50 percent of the girls become prostitutes
40 percent of the children become addicted to drugs or alcohol
40 percent commit crimes
10 percent commit suicide
Just 1 in 10 former Russian orphans becomes a functional member of society.

132,500 children are abandoned to the state in Russia every year, up from roughly 67,000 in 1992.

Nearly 4,640 Russian orphans were adopted by Americans in 2005, down from a record 5,865 in 2004.
13 out of every 100 children adopted by Russians are eventually returned to the orphanage.
40 million children in the former Soviet Union are living in poverty.

Sources: Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Commission for Children at Risk, Human Rights Watch, European Children's Trust, Rosstat Agency

What to do?

What's a girl to do with all this time waiting? As you can see, I have made some minor changes to my blog. I've added some widgets (see the right side of the page), I've changed the colors and the format. I'm trying everything and anything to keep myself occupied by this most excruciating wait. The rooms are picture perfect, their closets are filling up, my yard is meticulously groomed, I'm learning and practicing my Russian phrases for adoptive parents. I am driving myself crazy checking my e-mail 50 times a day to see if there is any news about accreditation.

The latest from my agency's new case manager is that accreditation will happen the end of this month and we will be travelling in June for court; but I feel like I have been down this road and heard this soooo many times that is hard to even get hopeful, but if I don't have faith, then what is left? The only one thing I am certain of is that this adoption will happen, but we just don't know when. I may be pushing a walker across Siberia to get them, but they will come home eventually. I am just asking for continued prayers and good thoughts to get these kids home. I miss them so much.

Love,
Jane

Latest news:

Here is the latest statement regarding the impending accreditation:

"On Wednesday, April 25, 2007 the Hague Implementation Staff of U.S. Department of State issued an official notice confirming the news that "no U.S.-based adoption service providers are currently accredited with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.” The following day, NCFA President and CEO, Thomas Atwood, along with NCFA staff Lee Allen and Chuck Johnson met with Alina Levitskaya, Director of the Department of Youth Policy, Upbringing, and Social Protection of Children of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. Ms. Levitskaya was in Washington, DC to meet with senior staff within the U.S. Department of State to discuss the status of Russian intercountry adoption and the accreditation of U.S. agencies. Ms. Levitskaya told NCFA that her visit had been scheduled in response to recent publicly-stated concerns that the ongoing delays in re-accreditation process appeared to be aimed primarily at American agencies and that these delays were hurting children. During the meeting, Ms. Levitskaya offered explanation of reasons why the Russian government’s efforts to initiate adoption reform measures have taken much longer than anticipated. The NGO registration requirement and the Russian Ministry of Education and Science’s requirement to involve other Russian ministries in clarifying adoption procedures have presented huge challenges that, in Ms. Levitskaya’s opinion, appear to be near resolution. She confirmed receipt of the U.S. Department of State’s recent statement regarding the rights granted to Russian children adopted by American families – and thanked NCFA for acting as a liaison with the U.S. Department of State on this issue. Ms Levitskaya expects several agencies to receive renewal of their accreditation in the imminent future, as well as a steady processing of applications from other countries. Further, Ms. Levitskaya informed NCFA that, after clearing the backlog of pending accreditations, the Ministry of Education and Science will then explore the notion of accepting applications for accreditation by additional agencies."

I have no idea of their definition of "imminent" is; hopefully that means by the end of the month of May.

Jane

Another week of waiting

Well, another week has passed and still no travel dates; I guess the 5 to 6 week time frame I was given back in March is not going to happen. I am probably the only person who loves Mondays, as that means the work week has begun in Russia and maybe, just maybe, we might get some good news! I spoke with my agency late last week and their best guess is accreditation will happen the end of May. In the meantime, they are trying to to process the three families in Birobidzhan as independent adopters. This would mean that we essentially don't have an agency representing us, although our agency still does all the work, whatever.

I am willing to do anything at this point, including just flying over there and waiting it out in the Hotel Vostok in Biro. I do feel kind of sorry for these agencies as they really cannot take on new clients until this mess is cleaned up and without new clients, they have no revenue coming in. My agency is having to lay people off and rent out part of their space in their office just to keep the lights on! It amazes me how far reaching the consequences of this delay is having. Nothing else new to report. Thank you all for your e-mails and prayers; I am sorry I have not responded to everyone, I will try and be better going forward.

I do have some new babies to report on, here is what has set up home on my courtyard. At least someone is having babies around here!!!